Survey says most businesses satisfied

The majority of downtown Agassiz businesses surveyed reported being satisfied with how the filming of Wayward Pines has rolled out to date.

The survey was created and administered by the District of Kent and hand delivered to 19 businesses directly affected by the Wayward Pines filming.

In total, 12 businesses responded to the survey, a completion rate of 63 per cent.

The results were made public at Tuesday’s council meeting, and overall painted a picture of a satisfied group of merchants.

All of the businesses reported being contacted directly by WWP location managers, and were offered compensation for their troubles. Of those, 92 per cent were either somewhat or completely satisfied in updates provided throughout the filming process.

While they were satisfied with the initial communication, half of the respondents also stated that they were not satisfied with the level of set construction that took place, with most not realizing the magnitude of the massive construction process.

However, district staff noted that even the production company has said that Agassiz is now home to one of the largest off-site productions in their history.

To that end, the production reports they are paying compensation levels and providing notifications through advertisements at a higher level than they have in other communities.

Some of the positive, anonymous comments collected through the survey show the excitement surrounding the filming of the television series.

“Glad to be a part of something so big, this will be good for Agassiz,” one business owner wrote.

“Interesting process that will be good for Agassiz,” wrote another.

While many business owners requested that they be informed before the decision to host filming was made, staff said that when working with a tight time frame, polling all businesses could cost them the deal.

“From my understanding,” said Councillor Darcy Striker, “they came at us all of a sudden and needed an answer.”

If they couldn’t provide an answer quickly, the production would have gone somewhere else. Of all the businesses, Striker’s Lordco has arguably undergone one of the bigger transformations, becoming a stone-fronted bank.

The crews will return at the end of November for set dressing to prepare for Dec. 3 filming.